I've heard from multiple people that the Amish paint their doors blue to
advertise they have a wife to wed. It sounds a little bizarre and
unorthodox to me, but 4 different people have sworn up and down to me that
this is true because they're trying to produce offspring with those
outside their community to avoid inbreeding, since it has become a social
stigma as well as producing unhealthy offspring. I didn't find anything
on the site about the Blue Door rumor, can you confirm this as fact or
fiction?

I have never seen an Amish home with a blue door. So for this part of Mo, at least, I'd say the rumor is false. However, the concern about inbreeding is a very real concern here. I know some Amish move to other areas, sometimes even out of the state, to find spouses.

I don't see how the blue door would help with the inbreeding issue, since any Amish person who sees the door would almost certainly be part of the same community, and they're not interested in marrying their daughters off to English (non-Amish) men.

The Amish are, as AW said, very concerned about inbreeding, because they've been stricken with some very nasty genetic diseases. But the solution to that is to import spouses from other Amish communities, or to relocate families to those other communities.

Question: Is it true that the Amish paint the front door of their homes blue to show that they have a daughter available to be wed?

Answer: No. The Amish live in large, comfortable houses that are painted white. They would not "decorate" their front door and they would not advertise that a daughter is available for marriage. Amish courtship is a rather private event. Amish youth socialize in groups whenever possible at an evening youth gathering after chores are finished, Sunday afternoon gatherings after church and for the traditional Sunday evening hymn singings. Relationships that lead to marriage usually are formed during these activities. Open dating does not take place but the boy and girl have time to talk after church services, at barn raisings and frolics, picnics and youth activities such as volleyball and baseball. While a girl will not ride with a boy to a Sunday evening singing, she will ride home with him afterwards in the dark. The boy will visit at her house only at night after the parents have gone to bed. This courtship, usually conducted in secret, has become more open with New Order Amish in recent years.

Well, looks like you all have your answer, but I was just going to add that in my experience with my Amish relatives, I have never seen a blue door, nor heard of this mentioned (and I've been to an Amish wedding) - as the FAQ link says, that's a little too flashy

Comment: Being from Pennsylvania, we live near a lot of Amish people.
There is a rumor that we consider highly unlikely, and we would like to
help dispell rumors about our friendly but reclusive neighbors if it is
not true.

Since Amish people do not marry outside of their faith, there is a danger
of inbreeding when they marry within their own community. The rumor
states that Amish husbands sometimes recruit non-Amish men to mate with
their wives, since they don't believe in artificial insemination. The
rumor also states that the husband MUST be present during the act.

Considering how conservative the Amish people are, this seems to be a bit
outlandish, but it would make sense if they want to solve their problems
with genetic defects.

They would not "decorate" their front door and they would not advertise that a daughter is available for marriage.

I didn't even think of it this way initially but it's a good point. These people won't use zippers because they're "fancy" (read:decoration) so it's not like ease of use or even necessity come in to play. If they badly needed "English" sperm, they still wouldn't use "fancy" means to get it from what I know.

Comment: My boyfriend's cousin said around where he lives, Northern
Indiana, that there are ads in the newspaper from the Amish offering money
for "new genes." Basically because the Amish are such a small group, they
are becoming inbred, and therefore are offering money to non-Amish men to
have sex with their wives and/or daughters for reproductive purposes only
in order to cut down on the inbreeding. I've heard this more than once
from different people.

I find it hard to believe as the Amish are very religious and
conservative, but perhaps there is some truth to it? That, or it's just
some young men telling tall tales of getting paid to have sex.

I've heard that about the Hutterites around here with the same story. I think this definitely falls into the urban legend category, as even though this was supposedly "commonplace" I've never heard of anyone ever actually doing it. Considering Hutterites are a religious folk, and extramarital sex is frowned upon, and if I understand correctly the Amish are also quite religious... This might not be very well accepted by them.

It is true they have problems with small gene pools, but their usual solution is moving. Which is how many of the Amish around us got here.

That's what I had heard; that every now and than there are big migrations where many members of Amish communities in one area will uproot and move to other Amish communities and vice-versa to mix up the gene pool.

That's what I had heard; that every now and than there are big migrations where many members of Amish communities in one area will uproot and move to other Amish communities and vice-versa to mix up the gene pool.

That's pretty accurate. My DHs family lives in an area with a Mennonite population (Amish with cars). Apparently around the time we were married several men from that community went up to a community in Canada to find wives. Some men from the Canadian community came to the in-laws area for the same reason. I do remember them saying that one of the reasons was that they were worried about becoming too close geneticly.